Scientists from Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) have discovered three new Cephalaeschna species, namely C. discolor, C. mattii and C. solitaria in Shennongjia, a forest district in northwestern Hubei Province. "The three new Cephalaeschna species are found nowhere else in the world but central China," Zhang Haomiao, an aquatic animal researcher from IHB, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The genus Cephalaeschna is among the most ancient dragonfly group which is only distributed in Asia. All Cephalaeschna species are confined to running water habitats located in mountain ranges with dense forest, and some can live in extremely high mountains. Most species are on the wing late in the season. About 20 species are known all over the world and 8 species have been recorded from central and southern China. In the 2012 surveys conducted by the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, IHB, 6 species of the genus were collected, 3 species are new to science, thus the total species number of the genus are raised to 11.

Before this study, the knowledge of the genus Cephalaeschna was inadequate. Central China is very poorly surveyed so many more new species are waiting to be found. The discovery of these new species from Shennongjia shows that the biodiversity of dragonfly is also high in central China. The 3 new species are only endemic to central China so they are of great value for the fauna study. Cephalaeschna larvae can only be bred in very clean montane streams so they are used as important indicators of water quality monitoring.

The paper on dragonfly was published in the journal “International Journal of Odonatology” with the title ‘Three new Cephalaeschna species from central China with descriptions of the hitherto unknown sex of related species (Odonata: Aeshnidae)’ (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13887890.2013.782530).